having lived in japan, the amount and quality of food/snacks/drinks/alcohol at convenience stores makes them a pretty attractive option
something as simple as coffee and a sandwich in the morning and some beers and snack food after work could easily add up to a couple hundred a month, even though most of it isn't the kind of food traditionally associated with convenience store junk food
Yep. I live in Japan and while I probably (...uh... probably...) don't spend $10 a day at the convenience store, it would be pretty easy. I also go at least once a day. $1 for coffee, 80 cents for daifuku (the best food in the world), $1.50 for yogurt, $2 for fruit... I notice he has a bag of beef jerky in his picture. That's particularly expensive (probably $3 or so).
I think the thing missing from the picture is that convenience stores in Japan are a lot more convenient than they are in many other places in the world. The 7-11 store near me sells vegetables, sliced meat, bacon, eggs, milk, etc, etc. So while it is common to buy months and months of food items from a grocery story (or possibly a yearly supply of mayonnaise from Costco) in NA, people tend to buy small amounts of things from smaller stores in Japan.
Yeah, the convenience stores were one of the biggest surprises for me when touring Japan. I ate a lot of my lunches at 7-11 and Lawson, whereas I completely avoid 7-11 in the US.
While convenience store food in Japan is far superior to convenience store food pretty much anywhere else in the world (except maybe Thailand!), it's actually somewhat expensive and not as good as what you'd get in Japanese fast food chains. For example, a convenience store gyudon (beef bowl) costs more and is less tasty that Yoshinoya's standard Y300 gyudon.
I think it's mainly because you can't find a Yoshinoya in a town/road that isn't even on google maps but you can find 3 lawson's and a famlymart. (convenience≠cheap)
something as simple as coffee and a sandwich in the morning and some beers and snack food after work could easily add up to a couple hundred a month, even though most of it isn't the kind of food traditionally associated with convenience store junk food